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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23004646">Leave Me Stranded</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockscientist14/pseuds/rockscientist14'>rockscientist14</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Rescue Bots</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:27:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,249</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23004646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockscientist14/pseuds/rockscientist14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Optimus, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will never forgive you.” </p><p>In which Ratchet is forced to evacuate the children.</p><p>With the threat of annihilation looming, fractured Autobot forces will have to pull together if they hope to survive.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack Darby &amp; Ratchet, Miko Nakadai &amp; Ratchet, Optimus Prime &amp; Ratchet, Rafael "Raf" Esquivel &amp; Ratchet, implied Optimus Prime/Ratchet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Leave Me Stranded</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Wow, it's been a while since I've done this.</p><p>Expect the tags to change, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. </p><p>Many thanks to Rocky and Floridian_Trash for looking over this.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“RATCHET TURN AROUND, GO BACK!”</p><p>An unnatural roar and an alien green glow interrupted the stillness of the Chihuahuan brush. the portal deposited its occupants roughly, collapsing with a burst of light just as hurriedly as it appeared.</p><p>Ratchet’s alt came seemingly micrometers from tipping as he turned into his momentum, tires bouncing against the desert soil he came to a still.</p><p>The dust settled after several seconds, only the muffled beating on reinforced glass could be heard.</p><p>Unbuckling his seatbelt, Jack spoke first. </p><p>“Are you guys okay?” </p><p>Raf rubbed at the back of his neck, having slammed his head against the cushioned seat in Ratchet's stretcher bay. He was expressively uncomfortable but uninjured. </p><p>“I’m fine, I think.” He said, leaning forward as far as the belt would let him,  </p><p>The only answer from Miko came in the form of her continued assault on Ratchet’s passenger side door, grunting and swearing and fervently slamming her fists into his interior.</p><p>Ratchet’s reply came without a word and from her enclosure, she was sent tumbling out onto mudcracked ground. His remaining doors unlatched with a quiet uniform chulunk, freeing Jack and Raf to scramble out after her. </p><p>“Are you okay Miko?” Raf questioned, coming to kneel down beside her. Miko pushed herself up on her hands and knees, leaning back to sit up and glare at the offending ambulance.</p><p>“Dude, what the heck was that!?” She spat “Why are we like- in the middle of freaking nowhere!?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Jack interjected,  “You guys gotta stop keeping us in the dark like this. My mom’s gonna freak out.” </p><p> “Ratchet,” Raf started, “ where are we? I ne-”</p><p>
  <b>“Stop it. Stop talking. All of you.” </b>
</p><p>Unfolding into his root mode, Ratchet stumbled backward. He flared his armor to send cooler air up into overheating components. Even from the ground, they could feel it radiate up off him.</p><p>Ratchet pressed a digit to his temple, putting on the near-distant look of someone attempting to hail a response via comms. </p><p>“Optimus? Can you read me?”</p><p>“Optimus please respond.”</p><p>“Optimus!”</p><p>The silence cut at him. Static would be reassuring, suggesting the comms are simply malfunctioning, not offline altogether. The lack of feedback implied that someone actually went in and turned the system off completely, that or...</p><p>“Can anyone hear me?!”</p><p>His expression scrunched further. Clamping his plating against his protoform, he paced anxiously back towards the children.</p><p>Raf stood to approach Ratchet hesitantly.  “What is it? Are the others okay?” </p><p>Voice barely calm, Ratchet approached, uttering at the edge of inaudibility. </p><p>“No Rafael, I... I’m afraid they may not be.” </p><p>He flipped up a panel on his forearm. What would usually show the vitals of his fellow Autobots now only displayed his own, information the central computer is supposed to uplink directly. </p><p>As his worst fears were confirmed he had to will himself to continue without sounding too shaken, how was he supposed to tell them that the others are likely either fighting for their lives or offline at this moment? </p><p>“Optimus ordered me to evacuate you three." He paused."I fear the reason likely being that the Decepticons have discovered the location of our base."</p><p>Miko looked fixedly up at him, disbelieving.  “So you’re saying that the cons are laying waste to the place as we speak?” </p><p>The static forming in his vocaliser made it hard to speak, Ratchet just nodded.</p><p>Raf’s face lost all color. “W-Weren’t the others on the roof when-?”</p><p>“They’re probably fine.” Jack interrupted, placing a hand to Raf’s shoulder</p><p>“What? Like the Cons' are going to immediately fly the warship over to Jasper and wreak havoc?” </p><p>He didn’t sound too confident.</p><p>Ratchet stared down at them, then let his optics sweep out over the horizon.</p><p>“The fact that I cannot currently get any sort of response from my computer implies yes, it’s most likely been destroyed at this point.” </p><p>Ratchet could meet their eyes, shutting his optics tight as he listened to Miko grieving wails and felt the sudden barrage of pounding at his pedes. In the moment of sudden grief, he caught a glimpse of Jack pulling Miko back as she flailed against his hold, eventually retreating to bury her face in Jack’s chest.</p><p>We lost the Omega lock because you couldn’t be bothered to pick up the children.</p><p>
  <i>They’re gone, it’s your fault.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>He’s dead.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Optimus is dead.</i>
</p><p>A piece of him desperately wants to curl up and cry with the children.</p><p>-</p><p>He doesn’t have the resources to cobble together a ship or even fix up a wreck. Where would he even go if by some miracle he could? Like a neutral colony or any planet in the commonwealth or QCPS would take him. Even as a healer he’d be facing trial for war crimes against Cybertron for his position in The Great War. </p><p>
  <i>You know it would be easier and less painful to just remain on Earth if you wanted to be executed.</i>
</p><p>The Galactic Council's stance on inorganic species has been caustic at best long before Cybertronions began to make a mark on the greater galactic community. The chances of him finding asylum among them are little to none.</p><p>Fleeing Earth isn’t an option.</p><p>
  <i>Even if you did escape, it isn’t like you would ever be able to forgive yourself for daming mankind.</i>
</p><p>The Decepticon takeover of Earth is inevitable, Megatron would never let such a resource-rich planet slip through his oily claws. The Cons will strip the little blue marble down to Unicron’s core, killing all who stand their way brutally and with great prejustice. There’s not a thing any of Earth’s forces can do to impede the ensuing massacre.</p><p>The best Ratchet can do really is to find a nice comfy spot to curl up and rust. </p><p> </p><p>“Ratchet” Rafael started, “What are we going to do now?”</p><p>With that, Ratchet was broken from his fatalistic thoughts. </p><p>It had taken them all of an hour to come to terms with the fates of their guardians and several hours later, camped out in the middle of the desert in Ratchet’s alt they had finally found sleep, all but one.</p><p>Rafael sat in his passenger seat, knees to chest with his arms wrapped around them to make his already tiny form only impossibly smaller.</p><p>They don’t have a base, they don’t have a way to securely communicate or a groundbridge to gather energon. </p><p>What are they going to do?</p><p>The first thought that flew into Ratchet’s processor was of additional Autobot forces hidden on Earth, of the unit of tiny untrained mechs stationed up along the country’s uppermost east coast. </p><p>Of the Autobot spy Optimus had stationed in Europe that he didn’t think Ratchet was privy to. </p><p>Allegedly even an old friend of Optimus’, the headmaster Hightide had made his way down to their little backwater planet. </p><p>They had people to turn to, people who could help them hold off the inevitable. Hope flared in his spark, for the first time since this whole nightmare began. </p><p>They couldn’t have Cybertron and they wouldn’t have their lives for all that much longer. He couldn’t have prevented them from taking these little fleshlings in, thus putting them all in this situation in the first place but by Primus he had to aggressively hold onto that flicker of something good, less he loose it and fall into despair.</p><p>It might just be enough.</p><p>“Tomorrow we start heading east. The farther away we can get from Jasper, the better we can evade capture.”</p>
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